October 1st: Black Eyed Children

The boy began to shift his body when Kisner passed them on her way to her car, then he lifted his head and made eye contact with her. “I froze. His eyes were black as night, very dull, almost dead,” Kisner said. “The look he gave me has haunted me. The feeling I got from him was as though he wasn’t all there, almost ghostly.” …Kisner doesn’t know who, or what the boy was, but this memory will stick with her forever. “Ever since then the look he gave me has haunted me,” she said. “Almost like he knew what I had been thinking.” – Jason Offut, “Encounters With Black Eyed Kids”

Little known is known about the Black Eyed Kids, supernatural predators given human form. They seem to be a new phenomenon, known mostly from scattered reports across blogs and late-night talk-shows going back a decade. Beyond that – their origins, their true nature, almost everything – is the subject of speculation. The Black Eyed Kids are the perfect hunters, manipulating – and mocking – adults’ natural compassion for children. The beings appear as pale-skinned preteens, their nickname coming from their most prominent feature, bottomless black eyes. The Black Eyed Kids feed off the fear of adults, preying on those suffering mental illness, emotional exhaustion or senility. The creatures approach the potential victim – sometimes alone, sometimes in twos or threes – under the guise of needing help, insistent they be let in the subject’s home or vehicle. Once inside, they unleash a subtle psychic attack, increasing the victim’s fear, feeding off it until the person dies of fright.

Cause Fear: On a successful attack, the Black Eyed Kid will drain 1d6 magic points per round from the victim. The attack puts the victim is a near-mesmerized state, and has little idea what is happening. The victim may act as normal, but all skills are reduced by an amount equal to the magic points lost, and they may not take any direct action against the Black Eyed Kid. The victim may make a Luck roll every round to escape the attack. Reduced to zero magic points, the victim dies and will show signs of having died of an excruciating heart-attack or stroke.